This is the kind of story you can only read with sigh and a slow, disapproving shake of the head. Gamescom 2016 opens as of tomorrow, and already giant banners adorn the German convention center advertising upcoming titles like Dishonored 2 and Titanfall 2. Along with that, an unexpected banner in trademark orange advertising Half-Life: 3.
As you might guess from the odd punctuation and the fact that this obviously isn’t a real announcement, this banner has nothing to do with the long-anticipated Half-Life 3. Instead, it’s an ad for a panel called “Half-Life: 3 editors who played it back then.” Impressive credentials, guys, playing one of the most popular PC games of all time.
The panel is hosted by German gaming sites GIGA Games and Spieletipps, both of which are bad and should feel bad for being jerks. It’s not really a ruse, so I can’t fault them for deception, but it’s a pretty off-putting marketing tactic. But hey, I’m writing about it, so I guess they win.
I still think that Half-Life 3 will someday exist, but for right now it’s just nice to have something to replace Duke Nukem Forever in those game delay jokes. (Thanks to Polygon for the report and Eurogamer for the image.)
